What Jody Did
by Seahorse8
Summary: When Lily's sister Rosie made friends wih Jody and started spending all her time at the dumping ground, her foster parents weren't happy, so Jody decided to take drastic action. This story is set about the time of series 2 of The Dumping Ground and is mostly from Jody and Rosie's point of view, but also partly about Tee.


The Dumping Ground: 2014

**Rosie Kettle**

I got fostered when I was six, and it felt like the best thing that had ever happened to me. Me and my sisters had a proper home at last! We'd been in care for about a year, and that was fine, but I never felt like I belonged. Before that, living with my dad, it was hell. He was always drunk, yelling at us, and I got so scared. Lily tried to protect us, but Poppy was only a toddler, and impossible. My dad was always trying to look after us and then making a mess of it and becoming violent. And Lily was only eight, the age Poppy is now. I can hardly remember before mum died and dad went... you know, weird. But Lily can. I suppose that's why she was never happy living with Matt and Christie. But when she left, I really missed her. She'd always looked after me in the past, but now I hardly ever got to see her. Christie just said it would "unsettle" me and Poppy. I tried telling her that it would unsettle us even more not to see our sister, but she wouldn't listen. Neither would my social worker, Rob. Well, he's about the worst social worker there ever was, and that includes the one Tracy Beaker, who worked at the dumping ground when I was there, had. Someone called "Elaine the Pain". Awful, right? But nowhere near as bad as Rob. For one thing, he always thinks he's right, and has about a thousand arguments for anyone who dares disagree with him. For another, he has not got a clue. Jody, my friend at the dumping ground, says it was all his fault for all the trouble she had with her brother last year. Gina had a hunch that things weren't right, but he would not listen. Are all social workers like this? If so, I think every care kid is doomed the moment they get one. You see, it's Rob who really stirred things up between me and Lily. Not to mention my dad. I'd like to live with my dad and big sister one day, but fat chance of that happening with him and Christie around. Nope, I'm stuck with Matt for a dad and Rosie for a sister. Lucky me. And, also thanks to them, I hardly ever get to visit Elm Tree House now. Because of what happened. Because of what Jody and I did. And I'm not saying it's not partly our fault, but we'd never have done it if it hadn't been for them. Want to know what we did? Wait and see.

**Jody Jackson**

When I think about psychos, certain people spring to mind. My social worker, who I have nicknamed Rubbish Rob till I think of something better and more offensive. My older brother Kingsley, who once locked me in my room for two days and got arrested for handling stolen goods. But I'd rather not think about that. It was horrible, scary, traumatic and all Rob's fault. And Tee's. Anyway, it's just one of the stories I used to shock Lily's sisters with. Until Harry nicked my idea and started freaking out the new girl. Till she nicked his giraffe, anyway. Serves him right. Floss is not the sort anyone messes with. And, as it turns out , neither are Lily's sisters. It's a long time before I mess with Rosie Kettle again. I think we both lived to regret it, and we're not the only ones. I'll tell you exactly what happened, from the start.

Which is probably when I first met Rosie and Poppy. I was about eight and a half when I first went into care, but I didn't meet them till quite a bit later. They always saw Lily when she was at her dad's. But when I was nine, Matt and Christie left the girls at the DG for the day, because they were busy or something. Mike got slightly cranky, like they were using this place as a free childminders or something, I mean, it was kind of weird, Lily wasn't even here. She was going to be really annoyed when she found out her sisters had visited without her knowing. But, anyway, they came, so I started telling them about Lily, and what she does when they're not around. Like that time Carmen and Elektra locked me in the toy cupboard when I first came here, which I still haven't quite forgiven Elektra for. Even though I know now that's just her way. Yeah, that's another psycho I can think of. But anyway, Lily had as much to with it as Carmen in the whole thing. Any way, Poppy and Rosie seemed a bit surprised, so I thought I'd tell them all about that time that poisonous Elektra locked Tee and Johnny in the coal bunker, that time we pretend there were careworkers around when there weren't and played home alone. Which was great, till things got a bit out of control. Well, I found it great, anyway.

"Was Lily there?" asked Poppy, so I told her how she'd told her dad she was staying here for a couple of days and come with a pack of hair dye.

"she was planning to go partying with Tee and Carmen later" I said. "And they wanted to do their hair. But me and Tyler had our own use for the dye. So I nicked it off them."

"What happened?" asked Rosie. So I told her. I was surprised how shocked they looked. I mean, it wasn't like I'd done anything criminal. So I started to think maybe they were a bit wimpy.

Then Rosie said, "Just before I left something happened. You've probably heard this before, but there's more to the story then you'd expect."

**Rosie Kettle**

I was about to tell Jody my story, to prove I wasn't a total wimp, but at that moment Mike came in, and told us it was time to go. I was kind of disappointed, but my story was pretty lame anyway. I was planning to tell her about how Tee fell out of that tree, or how Tracy was when she first came to the dumping ground. But I wanted to tell her most of all about the time Lily fell off the roof. You see, that was my fault. But I couldn't tell her, because I'd had to go home. After this, I didn't see Jody for quite a while. The next time I came to the Dumping Ground, she'd just gone to live with her mum and brothers. I was surprised how disappointed I was, but Jody had seemed really fun and exciting, and suddenly I realised how much I wanted her to like me and be my friend.

"But I she can't be gone!" I said, when Rob told me. "I wanted to tell her..."

"What?"

"Nothing." I couldn't believe how close I'd come to telling him.

"Tell me. Or your foster parents." he said, but I shook my head.

"I don't like Jody anyway," said Poppy. "She kept trying to scare us." That got Rob's attention.

"Did she? How? Are you all right?" He asked. I sighed.

"Course we are," I said. "But didn't Jody's family abandon her?"

Yeah. They did. Rob had got it wrong again. Soon Jody was back, and Lily told me and Poppy everything that had happened. Next time I saw Jody I said, "Do you remember what I wanted to tell you a few months ago?"

She didn't, but wanted to know anyway. So I told her.

**Jody Jackson**

Poor stupid Rosie. She thinks it was her fault that Lily fell off the roof that time. Rosie says that it was her who wanted Matt and Christie to hurry up fostering Lily, and that Lily felt really left out when Rosie and Poppy wanted their foster dad to read them a story, rather than Lily. She felt too old for stories, being seven, but wanted to be polite. But apparently, she preferred her dad's stories, and so did Poppy. And, it's her who begged Christie to go and get Lily when Tracy was making that massive protest. And Lily ran upstairs and fell off the roof. Rosie has felt bad ever since. What could I say to that? Only one thing _to_ say: "Rosie Kettle, you are an idiot." And I put her straight. But I couldn't stop wondering how it had been like that.

"Do you prefer living with Matt and Christie then?" I asked. Rosie thought for a long time then said, "No."

"Why not?" I was surprised. I'd wanted to be fostered for ages. Hadn't every care kid?

"Well, I used to love it when I was six or seven," Rosie said. "But now... well, it's just, they're so overprotective. For one thing, they still like me and Poppy to wear matching outfits, which is hell now I'm ten. I mean, it's not like we're twins or anything. And I never hear the end of it when people in my class see me." I laughed. I could totally see what she meant. "And also," Rosie went on, "They don't let me come here often. Apparently it would "unsettle" me and Poppy. Oh, and they act like we're one person."

I told her about living with my mum, and what she was like. It was surprising how similar our stories were. We ended up talking for hours about being in care and all that stuff. After that I met up with Rosie quite often. She turned out to be really good fun. I soon realised that Rosie was nothing like as wet as she seemed, and really different to Poppy.

"I feel like I'm losing my identity sometimes," Rosie told me much later. "Christie treats me and Poppy exactly the same, and expects us to act really well-behaved and babyish, so we just go along with it."

She certainly wasn't being well-behaved now. She had loads of good ideas for pranks, and hung out with me and Tyler a lot. For example, once she had the idea of putting orange food colouring in Elektra's bubble-bath thingy. The best thing about that was, it was impossible to see what had been done, and it just looked like Elektra had somehow managed to get a permanent bad fake tan. Seriously, it was priceless! And all Rosie's idea. Nobody except me and Tyler realised what Rosie was really like. Everyone was surprised that she was going round with us all the time, especially Lily. She couldn't get over the fact that Rosie now often came to the dumping ground on her own, when she wasn't there.

"I can't see why you to like each other so much," she said to me. "You to are totally different, except for being about the same age. Tell me on thing you have in common with my sister." What could I say to that? Tell on Rosie about what she'd done to Elektra and risk getting her into trouble and losing her as a friend? No way! So I smiled slyly and said, "We both like biscuits." And Lily went away. I was really enjoying having Rosie as a friend. She understood totally what things were like for me, and I understood her. It turned out we had loads in common, even our favourite colour (red), least favourite singer (Justin Bieber; yeuch!), and favourite animal (horses). I'd never had a proper friend before. Most of the people I really got on with were boys, rather than girls. All the girls in my year at school were obsessed with fashion, and stuff like that, and I didn't really fit in. I suppose Rosie _was_ a bit like that, in her own way, but she was still really good fun, and we got on great. Rosie started spending more and more time at the dumping ground. She came almost every day. "It's much more fun than being at home," she told me. "There's always something going on, and loads of cool people have come since I left." It wasn't just me she spent time with. I was pleased to find that the people she really liked being with were my friends. She always joined in with anything I did with Tyler and Rick, and as for Carmen and Tee, well, they were Lily's best friends. She'd known Carmen since she went into care, and liked her almost as much as Lily.

"Poppy used to call her "Aunty Carmen"," she laughed. And it was great cos she did loads more with Lily now. They'd grown apart after she went to live with Matt and Christie. But now they saw each other loads more. It would all have been great if it hadn't been for the adults. They hated Rosie spending so much time at Elm Tree House.

"She's hardly ever at home now," said Christie. "My daughter can't jut go wherever she likes, see whoever. She hasn't lived there for years. I need some control over what she does. I'm sure it's bad for her spending so much time there."

"It's obsessive, this behaviour," said Rob. " It's all right to have an arranged visit from time to time, when Lily's there, but this is ridiculous. I say we limit the visits to when Lily is there, once or twice a year, maybe. With me. But that's it."

"Once or twice a _year_?!" cried Rosie.

"Come on," said Mike. "I know Rosie spend a bit too much time here, but once or twice a year? That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"

"She's my daughter," said Christie. This was her home for less than a year. I don't want her coming here any more."

"It's for the best," said Rob. "She needs to settle down."

I could hardly hear what Rosie said next. I put my head closer to the door and could just hear her protest, "Since when aren't we allowed to have friends?"

**Rosie Kettle**

So now do you see what they did? I'm sure they thought it was for the best, but it meant losing the best friend I'd ever had. The only person who really understood me. I hardly ever saw Jody after that. I was never allowed back to the dumping ground, and when I tried to invite her round to my house, it was too formal, with social workers and everything. Matt and Christie didn't approve of Jody anyway. So that was the end of that story. Now do you see why I spent so long slagging them off earlier? So now you know.

**Jody Jackson**

Was that the end of the story? No way was it. It was time to do something, to get this sorted once and for all. It

was...

PAYBACK TIME!

**Rosie Kettle**

I haven't got a mobile phone. I know it seems weird, I mean I'm ten, and everyone else my age has one, but Christie never let me. But Jody did have one way of communicating with me: Lily. Lily would never have let us do what we were planning, so we wrote each other notes in code, and got Lily to pass them on. Jody sent me the first one: "_Cnlonpx Gvzr! Cenax Z naq P! V'ww qb E!"_

Which means "_Payback Time! Prank M and C! I'll do R!" _I could tell Lily was wondering what on earth we were talking about. So I did the food colouring fake tan thing on Christie, and when Matt was washing all his white shirts, I snuck in Poppy's gooseberry red shirt... with disastrous results! So I sent Jody a very short note: "_Qbmr. Lbh?_" meaning, _"Done. You?"_

Jody's note back said: "_Ehoorq punyx ba uvf punve vg'f pbzr bss ba uvf gebhfref!" _I laughed. So that was the end of that. Or was it? Well, what do you think? Of course it wasn't! It was nowhere near the end. We still hadn't worked out what to do about seeing each other again. I thought for hours about what we could do, and then, suddenly, I had an idea. Run away! Well, okay, maybe it was a bit stupid of me not to have thought of that before. But I did in the end, didn't I! So we did this, and went to the park to talk. About the most shocking thing either of us had seen happening at the dumping ground. So Jody told me about the time Tee knocked down Mo's scarecrow and it fell on top of him, and I told her about the time Tee fell out of a tree. Funny how both our stories involved Tee, and someone got injured. Then, suddenly, Jody grinned. "The tree! That's it!"

"Um... what are you on about?"

"One of us can climb up it!"

"No we can't, and what has that got to do with anything?"

"Well..." she said, speaking very slowly as if I was dumb or something, which personally I think is a bit harsh, I mean I don't think anyone would know what she was on about, but there you go, "Nobody can get up the tree. So we nick a load of important files or something, climb up with them and don't come down till they change their minds. Genius!"

Okay, Jody had gone mental. That was probably the worst plan anyone had ever thought of. But for some reason, I found myself saying, "Count me in." Recipe for disaster.

So I had to go along with what Jody said, which was fine, well as fine as agreeing to a completely crazy plan can be anyway, until suddenly Jody asked, "Who's going to go up the tree? You or me?" Crap. I mean, I wasn't going to climb up a tree I'd already seen Tee get stuck up and then fall out of, was I? And I couldn't ask Jody to, either. So what was I meant to say? What I wanted was to say, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all," but then Jody would have thought I was wetter than ever. So I just said, "You decide." So it's all my fault that Jody said,

"All right. I'll do it." Well, at least she didn't have any overprotective older siblings, did she. Whereas I had Lily. Still, for some reason I felt much better when she suddenly added, "But you nick the files." Ok, it was me who was going mental.

"Which files should I take?" I asked.

"Oh, just grab whatever Rob brings next time he comes to the dumping ground," Said Jody vaguely. "I'll tell you when and sneak you in. And get anything your foster parents or Mike and Gina have floating around. Doesn't matter what. Anything important-looking. While I'm up the tree and everyone's distracted trying to get me down. Then chuck them up."

"Yeah, but what if I miss? Someone else is bound to grab them and that'll be the end of your plan."

"Oh yeah. All right, you nick the files, then put them into a bag or something so I can climb up with them." "Right." I said, but it wasn't; no way. Still, I was stuck now, so I might as well do it. So, Jody told me the next time Rob was visiting. That day, I went into Matt and Christie's study, before anyone was up. I grabbed a bundle of important-looking letters and stuffed them in my school bag. Then, I snuck out of the house and got the bus to the dumping ground. It was too early for anyone to be up yet except Jody so I was able to go without anyone seeing me. Then I waited outside the door, but not for long. Jody had been watching from her window and she let me in, thrust the key of the office at me and disappeared. Nicking Mike and Gina's files was pretty easy. I just opened the office door, tiptoed in, and opened the drawer with everyone's files in it. I wandered for a moment which ones I should take. Who didn't anyone like? Elektra, I decided, grabbing hers. Who else? There wasn't anyone else really bad, so I just grabbed the files belonging to Floss and Johnny. I stuffed them in my bag, and left. Then I went up to Jody's room, where I could hide in her wardrobe and play on her phone till Rob came. When he did, I snuck downstairs and waited, hiding, for him to leave his bag unattended. He always seemed to have it with him, though. But just as I thought he'd never leave it alone, the doorbell rang several times and Christie's voice floated in.

"Oh, Rob, Mike, come quick, I can't find my Rosie anywhere! All her stuff is there, so she can't have run away. Maybe she's been kidnapped!" Oh dear. Better hurry up before she called the police or something. I emptied Rob's bag into mine, thrust it at Jody and followed her into the garden. She ran to the tree, jumped up and started climbing.

**Jody Jackson**

The tree was incredibly easy to climb. I wondered what Tee had been so worried about . She was quite sporty. Maybe cos she'd only been nine and wasn't quite as flexible as me. I got much higher as she'd been, without anyone seeing me, but then I heard Rosie's anxious voice.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she was asking.

"To late to stop now!" I started to say, then made the mistake of looking down. Rosie had gone white, and she suddenly looked very far away from me. Oh dear. I felt slightly queasy. At that moment, Christie ran up, with Poppy and Lily. I saw that they were all yelling at Rosie, but none of them had looked up. Then Poppy did. And fainted. Suddenly, everyone ran up. They were all yelling at me to get down, but I couldn't and wouldn't. Then Tee looked ran up. I'll never forget her face, or the way she yelled, "No!" . Or how she climbed up after me. Johnny tried to stop her, but it was too late.

**Tee Taylor**

I'm heavier than I was four years ago, but also more agile. I don't know why I climbed up after Jody. The last time I went up that tree was the worst experience of my life. But maybe that's why I went up after Jody. I just wanted to get her down. I was dimly aware of Johnny yelling at me, as well as anyone else, but really I was only focused on Jody. Better than on the way my heart was pounding, the way I felt sick, the way I almost couldn't do it. This was my worst nightmare, and I was going through it for the second time. Jody was yelling at me too.

"Tee, you idiot, get down, please!" But I didn't listen. I just went higher, trying to reach Jody. I don't know why, or what I could have done if I had reached her. But I just wanted to do what Johnny had done for me that time, four years ago. Suddenly, I couldn't get any higher. I wasn't as good a climber as Jody was. So I looked down. Gina had gone inside to get help. Mike and Rob were trying to get me and Jody down. I saw that Christie had her arms round Poppy and Rosie, who were sobbing. Lily was nearby, with Carmen. Floss and Elektra were throwing murderous looks at Elektra, who still had their files. But not Johnny. Johnny was just looking at me, begging me to come down. But I couldn't. I hadn't reached Jody. Then I heard someone, Rick I think, say, "Tee, quick the branch is breaking!" I tried to move, quickly. But it was too late. The branch snapped, and I fell again. Only this time, there was no beanbag to break my fall. Only hard, solid ground.

**Jody Jackson**

They ended up having to call the ambulance as well as the fire brigade. I got off the tree safely, and reluctantly handed over Rosie's bag, with all the files in it. Rosie and me were in heaps of trouble for what we did. Christie was completely livid. And pretty scary. We had to speak to Rob loads of times, explaining how sorry we were and why we did it. And everyone at the dumping ground was mad at us. At me especially. I told Tee millions of times how sorry I was, but she wasn't mad at me. Not after I got a hard time from my psycho brother because of her that time. Luckily Tee was fine except for a broken arm. But I'll tell you the two people who were most mad at me about the whole thing. I mean kids, cos obviously Christie and Rob went completely ballistic about the whole thing. But the two kids who were most mad at me were Johnny and Lily, of course. I'd got their sisters into a whole load of trouble and they wouldn't speak to me for months. And I can't blame them. Now, I see Rosie from time to time, but not that often. I'm not surprised. I can't believe I made such a stupid plan. I should have guessed that climbing the tree would end like it did last time. Only this time, it was all my fault, and last time it was Tracy Beaker's. I think I'm quite like her in a way. We both wanted a best friend and were prepared to do completely stupid things to get one. That's the end of the story anyway. So long as I watch out for Elektra and Floss, who are still waiting to get me back for stealing their files. I'd better watch out.


End file.
